By Rauf Oyewole
The Centre for Journalism Innovation and Development (CJID) has tasked Nigerian journalists on holding the government accountable to achieve improved health care delivery to Nigerians.
The Chief Executive Officer of CJID and the Publisher of Premium Times, Dapo Olorunyomi said that development of any society and its democracy could be measured with the kind of journalism in place. He challenged media practitioners to engage more in investigative journalism to uncover hidden issues that could prompt policy shifts.
Olorunyomi also urged journalists to pay attention to reporting health issues while presenting evidence to back any report presented.
He said this during a two-day capacity building workshop on ‘investigative skills for covering Nigeria’s priority health challenges’, organised by the Centre in Abuja for 50 journalists.
The Centre said it has improved the skills of many journalists across different newsrooms in Africa with innovation and working digital tools to enhance their reporting.
While speaking on: Reporting that moves Policy: ‘Bridging the Gap Between Journalism and Health Policy Reform’; a programme manager at CJID, Ifeanyi Chukwudi, challenged journalists to report to move policy reform. According to him, government officials initiate policies but fail to execute them but only journalists can hold the power to account.
“Governments at different tiers have come up with several policies while others have also failed to formulate policy; it is also a policy not to have policy but as journalists, we can make them do the right thing,” he said.
He urged practitioners to report with the aim of creating impacts in the lives of the people.
Speaking on fighting; ‘Addressing Health Misinformation in Nigeria’ Editor at Dubawa Nigeria, Lois Ugbede charged journalists to restrain from misinformation amid ‘infodemic’ during health emergencies.
She called for adoption of; SIFT —Stop, Investigate the source, Find better coverage, Trace to origin as a way of fact-checking any information.
Nike Adebowale-Tambe, Editor, Health Desk at Premium Times, spoke on reporting primary health care facilities as a beat and how to structure a good investigative project. She encouraged the participants to focus attention on infrastructure, personnel, medicines and equipment. According to her, Nigeria spends hugely on the sector but little or no impact is felt at the grassroots.
